Ephemeral Flames of War
by Darkfirelight
Summary: Madara Uchiha had fought at the valley of the end, utilizing all of his abilities against his ultimate rival Hashirama Senju; In spite of this he had made no headway against his dreaded foe. When a misused Kamui sends him to another dimension the Uchiha has to adapt as best he can as a Pulse L'cie; Barthandelus won't know what hit him.


Disclaimer: I do not own FFXIII or Naruto.

Summary: Madara Uchiha had fought at the valley of the end, utilizing all of his abilities against his ultimate rival Hashirama Senju; In spite of this he had made no headway against his dreaded foe. When a misused Kamui sends him to another dimension the Uchiha has to adapt as best he can as a Pulse L'cie; Barthandelus won't know what hit him.

* * *

Crimson-black eyes slowly opened, taking in the surroundings with full awareness in spite of the owner's recent state of unconsciousness. Said owner slowly got to his feet, mentally cataloging the unfamiliar area and searching for ways both in and out; weaknesses, exits, pathways and anything that may aid him in his endeavors.

Madara Uchiha narrowed his Sharingan-activated eyes as he took in his location; A small cell with metal walls and no furnishings, trapped by metal bars too thick to go through yet thin enough for objects to come through. He noted the appearance of two individuals clad in armour similar to the Samurai of Iron country, though admittedly much more thin and stylized with unfamiliar markings and no sign of allegiance. A rogue sect, perhaps?

"Awake are w-" The speaker, another guard in similar yet bulkier armour, did not get to finish his sentence as, with swiftness beyond compare, Madara plunged his open palm straight through the bars; using a trick gathered from the Akimichi clan to extend his arm to maximum length and plunging it straight through the man's chest. Even if he had defected, he was still a shinobi, and therefore the samurai had a vested interest in his death, and he wasn't about to let that happen.

The other metal-clad men didn't get a chance to sound an alarm as, using a seal etched into the skin on his arm, he spun and drew a thin tanto, slicing through both the bars and the men in a single, fluid movement that reached further than it should have been able to.

Charging through the bloody arc surrounding him and ignoring the slippery fluid on his right arm the Uchiha patriarch dashed through an open hallway, cut through the door to the area and suddenly found himself staring down a thin, long room with multiple people clad in strange white and blue robes, glowing blue energy cords wrapped around their wrists.

There was just enough time for numerous people to look up, fear and confusion etched into most's faces, surprise and interest in others, and then another hostile noticed him. "FreeZE!" He yelled, voice rising as Madara flung a thin steel cord forward and straight through his throat.

The captives cowered back, screaming and murmuring even as he dashed forward, eyes registering numerous captives rising and cutting through the others bonds, led by a woman with strawberry hair and suspicious green eyes. Madara cut through another door, and stopped.

Staring at the massive city stretching before him, gleaming lights and cords rising up through massive metal buildings and surrounded by thick, metal traps, Madara instantly knew that he was no longer in the Land of fire. 'Not even Iron is this massive, nor any other village or land. And the sheer lack of wood and expanse of steel... Nowhere I've seen before.'

"PSICOM won't take long to hear about this." He ignored the pink-haired woman and her black, afro-topped ally, eyes taking in the Metropolis before him. "There!" This time he took notice, if only because of the large number of troops running full-pelt across one of the metal bridges/archways/roads. "We need to-"

The woman's words and the sound of her strange weapon deploying were cut off by his own as he leapt high through the air, hands grasping together and words echoing through the spoke-filled area. "Fire style: Grand fireball technique." He intoned, voice thick with disdain as he regarded them as ants before him. "For want of a magnifying glass." He murmured before unleashing his technique.

For most who used this technique a massive sphere of fire formed, spouting from their lips and then blazing through the opponents set before them. For him, however, it was less a fireball and more a veritable storm of pure, raw destruction, unbound and untamed.

This was seen first-hand by the people behind him trying to edge their way out of the train as, with a sweeping gesture like that of a king dismissing his subjects, he breathed hell.

The super-heated inferno melted through the bridge with little fanfare, blazing it's way through the metal of the bridge, the people and objects on the bridge, and then several buildings beyond.

He carelessly disregarded the stunned woman and hyperventilating sidekick he left behind as he landed and calmly made his way across what little remained of the bridge, a dark expression upon his face.

He walked several meters forward and then, upon noticing a light brighter than the others, gazed up at a massive metal obelisk, vaguely shaped like a dragon-man hybrid wrapped in chains.

He hadn't personally seen it before, but he had read of it in the Uchiha clan scrolls; There was only one possible thing that this... Construct could be; Only one creature that even vaguely matched it's appearance and, in turn, explained the massive cords spiraling out from it into the city. "Gedo Maze." He grinned, shaking away the notion with a sigh. Even if it was, the tailed beasts were all free; It was just a body.

The massive beast towered above the other buildings and drew much attention from others around him and so, with a sharp click of his fingers that he frequently used to cover his manipulation of fire-chakra, he blasted through the corrupted sky-line, dashing his way straight up the side of the thing.

He was jolted out of his musings on the nature of the life-form (and yes, he could feel that it was alive, though it wasn't surprising; Something as powerful as the Gedo was dangerous even with it's usual power separate from it.) by the arrival of the pink-haired woman, gripped around the waist by a struggling green-clad fool. The two crash-landed near him, falling across the railings around him and ending with her clinging to the side of the thing. "Little help!?" The words echoed from the fools mouth in various forms, each steadily more unintelligible.

He pursed his lips in irritation before finally relenting and hauling both male and female up with one hand, casual display of strength drawing a suspicious glare from her and a boggled wide-eyed stare from him. He dropped them unceremoniously to the floor, glaring. "How did you follow me?" He questioned the downed pair.

The pink-haired one clad in white glared for a moment and then reluctantly answered, perhaps in return for her rescue. "The energy you left off powered my je..." She trailed off with a frown as she noticed whatever gadget she had used to get up the construct in his wake sparking, smoke trailing lazily through the air. "Damn it."

He looked down at the tool and then turned, marching up to one of the metal thing's many entrances and stepping through, followed closely by the unknown soldier and bumbling moron. "I don't particularly care about the details, but if you plan on following me, try to keep up."

With that last parting shot he reached to his pocket, withdrawing a small case that he pulled out with ease despite the actual weight of it. This was his burden; The weapon gifted to him by his brother in the wake of his death, and the weapon that had wrought fear when used for his vengeance. Tobirama had only been saved by his brother's interference, but the other Senju hadn't been so lucky.

The case was expanded and opened, revealing a circular wooden-metal item that was pulled into two; He pulled a thin length of metal from his pocket, expanding it 'till it was nearly four feet long.

He felt the other two's curious eyes on him as he did so, but ignored them in favor of slotting the bo-staff through the opening in the center of the two circles, twisting it with a click, pulling it back slightly and repeating the process before, finally, covering the handle with a metal grip wrapped in bandages and attaching a black chain to the small spherical opening in the end.

The pink-haired finally commented, staring at him strangely. "...A Gunbai Uchiwa?" She queried, earning a confused look from the green-clad man next to him. "An army arrangement fan." She explained for his benefit, seemingly forgetting her cold demeanor in lieu of the new development. "I once saw one in a history program. They haven't been used for well over 600 years, and even then they weren't very frequently used. But why would you want to specialize in a weapon like that?"

His return smirk was more than a little foreboding and his answer even more so. "...To fan my flames of war." He spoke poetically, eyeing them. He turned back to see a group of strange black creatures making their way towards them. A single sweep of the war-fan sent them flying back, and, hair whipping about like a black halo in the wake of the intense wind, Madara casually bought his hands to his lips, fingers forming the 'Tora' sign in front of his lips.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation."

The world was overtaken by an enormous conflagration that overtook the creatures, blasting the otherworldly doors and burning the walls themselves.

Far above the unlikely three a group of others watched in shock as, below them, an entire floor seemed to light up.

The Fal'cie Anima _**Screamed.**_


End file.
